Chapter 145
Encounter
Passing
through the Doog Wasteland, a grassland spread out beyond it. From
there, to conserve MP, I used Magic Power Perception, Wind
Search, and Perception in tandem, while utilizing my limit-broken
agility to begin moving at high speed. After heading further north for a while,
the grassland abruptly ended, and the wasteland appeared once more. There, at
last, Magic Power Perception picked up the reactions of demons.
(Reactions
of both humans and monsters... Definitely demons.)
Since
there wasn't much cover in the wasteland, I used Shadow Dive for the
time being, threading my way from shadow to shadow to close the distance. Of
course, the shadows broke off midway, but perhaps because they never expected a
human to come this far out, the demons didn't notice me.
(There
are about thirty of them... A bit much for a first battle?)
Seen
from afar, the demons were arranged in a somewhat dense formation around a
campfire. They seemed to have their guard down, chatting and laughing merrily.
Compared to Lirica and Priola, whom I knew, they looked much more
like actual monsters. There were those with green skin like goblins, those with
pointy lizard-like heads and long extended tongues, those with horse faces, and
even those looking like centaurs with the lower bodies of horses.
Demons
possess the characteristics of both humans and monsters. These ones probably
leaned more towards the non-human monster traits. It might be a good thing that
Lirica and the others' appearances didn't differ much from humans.
「Man, I'm so bored.」
「I wish His Excellency Zwaarth
would just hurry up and give us permission to pillage.」
「I absolutely love it when demons
kill each other, though!」
「Gahaha! But nothing beats the thrill
of taking a crying, screaming human and just... squashing them like a bug.」
「You said it!」
Snap. I heard the sound of something
snapping inside me. It seems that, to them, a war against humans is treated as
a mere pillaging trip. Does that mean, from their perspective, it isn't even a
war?
Whatever
the case, it's fine. If the opponents are scum, I don't need to feel any pangs
of conscience.
I
checked the surrounding reactions; there were no other demons within my
perception range. Alright, in that case... let's do this. I won't hold back, of
course. I'll go all out right from the very first move.
「Strength, Fortify, Quick, Accel.」
First,
I applied the four-piece buff set and physical enhancement that I hadn't used
in a long time to raise my attack, defense, and agility.
「Double Judgment Ray, Delay.」
I
put a Judgment Ray on standby using Delay, and then...
「Double Judgment Ray.」
I
activated two more shots of Judgment Ray. With four shots at my
disposal, I could catch all the demons within range, even those a bit further
away.
「Eat this... Quadruple Judgment
Ray!」
Four
pillars of light enveloped the demons. And a blinding light illuminated
everything in stark white... The demons who had just been chatting merrily were
all dead, charred to a crisp, save for a single one. It seems the power of my
current Judgment Ray was a bit too excessive. Hmm, if they're this weak,
a normal Railgun could probably finish them off.
「H-Hiiiiiieee!?」
The
remaining one... the centaur demon who had looked the most arrogant among them,
was left alive with only one leg burned off. Of course, my aim wasn't off.
After all, if I killed them all, I wouldn't be able to extract any information,
right?
「Now then, spill the information.
Everything you know about the demons of the Demon Territory Zwaarth
stationed here.」
After
gathering the information from the demon, I shot a Railgun into him and
killed him. Even a Railgun was overkill, huh. If it's just to kill them,
Chain Lightning might be more than enough.
After
that, using the information I had, I moved on to sweeping operations. It seemed
the guys from the Demon Territory Zwaarth just moved in groups
based on their hometowns or regions, and possessed no real cohesion as a
military force. They simply operated on a ridiculously vague military strategy,
something like 'when an envoy from the higher-ups comes, time it right and attack
the humans.' Each individual is strong, and demons naturally have strong egos
to begin with. Rather than operating in organized groups, giving them a certain
degree of discretion seems to be the demon way of doing things.
「Chain Lightning.」
「「「Gwaaaaahhh!!」」」
Thanks
to that, it was extremely easy for me to handle. Because the distance between
each demon group was wide, I could engage in somewhat intense battles without
the other demons noticing. It seemed the power of my magic was already way too
excessive, so I was able to normally wipe them out in batches using relatively
weaker area-of-effect and multi-target attacks like Chain Lightning and Light
Arrow Rain. Naturally, the initial Judgment Ray was apparently seen
by some nearby demons, but I swiftly disposed of them based on the intel I
extracted, so it shouldn't be a problem.
「You bastard, who are... gah!?」
「It's been a while since I used Battoujutsu...
Yeah, my skills haven't dulled, what a relief.」
However,
carelessly spamming magic also felt a bit risky, so halfway through, I switched
to mainly using swordsmanship to deal with my opponents, also to conserve MP.
Demons come in various rich variations; aside from magic, there were
individuals who excelled in close-quarters combat, and even those capable of
flying through the sky. It's true that with so many different types all
mastering Dark Magic at LV 5 or higher, they're undoubtedly a
considerable threat.
I
killed a few demons who looked like messengers along the way, so it wouldn't
take long before they grew suspicious. I should hurry up a bit. Once I clean up
the demons around the battlefield, I'll advance straight into the Demon
Territory Zwaarth.
Even so, there seems to be a massive LV gap; no matter how many demons I defeat, my LV doesn't go up at all. Just when exactly is my LV going to rise?
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